Alright soooo it’s been awhile. Arches was the beginning of our national parks marathon. In that corner of Utah and North AZ there are so many parks to visit, sights to see! Truly a remarkable area of the country. But that was more than a month ago… crazy how time flies. Looking back at these pictures though I’m struck by just how stunning our hikes and drives were.
After our less-than spectacular night in Bullfrog on Lake Powell we headed Northwest. The plan was to take our time on the scenic highway that zig-zags through the mountains but about 2 miles in, the van came to a flooded riverbed. Without 4WD plus our teeny tire situation we thought better of it and turned back towards the normal old highway. That night we found a much better spot to camp. On a lake right outside of Bryce Canyon. Of course I don’t remember the name but the friendliest cat I’ve ever met lives there and her name is Angel. These are the important details…
Bryce is a truly unique and beautiful canyon. But you literally drive up, park, walk 2 min up a paved path and voila there is the most spectacular view within the whole park. Yes, I suppose that’s great if you’re up for the Chevy Chase speedy head bob then out (National Lampoon’s Family Vacay). But if you’re like us, it’s nice to hike in a bit before witnessing the finale. And omg there were so many people. Which always makes it harder to appreciate the beauty of a place. We hiked down into the canyon as far as we could, lots of the trails were closed for some reason, then decided to keep driving towards Zion to stay the night.
Sidenote: Looking back at these photos now I can’t believe we were so non-plussed by this place. It’s like something out of a fantasy world. We were just canyon-ed out I suppose.
Zion was pretty fantastic. Granted the camping situation wasn’t ideal since we hadn’t reserved a spot and the BLM sites we found were pretty far outside the park. So we put up our Reflectix, stayed real quiet, and parked right in the main parking lot. Actually, it worked quite well for our early morning wake up call. We wanted to be on the first bus to Angel’s Landing at 6am so we had to be up pretty early to make it.
The 5am morning wake up call was totally worth it! The hike up to Angel’s Landing was by far our favorite of the trip. Challenging both mentally and physically-lots of “don’t look down” moments. And the view OMG I just kept thinking of James Gurney’s book “Dinotopia”. The landscape really felt ideal for a Pterodactyl. Luca had no idea what I was blabbering about but hasn’t someone read/seen this book??
We ate our breakfast at the top, I had specially prepared overnight oats for the occasion. We also made friends with the chipmunks and a couple of fellow hikers. Then back down by 10am to hike the emerald pool trail, where we met a few very determined squirrels.
From Zion to The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was much shorter than I thought. Only 2.5 hours. Our first stop was Bright Angel Point and OMG… we were blown away. As a kid the grand canyon was pretty cool but as an adult I was nothing short of dumbstruck as I stood there gazing out over the edge of the North Rim. IT’S MAGNIFICENT.
The next day we hiked into the canyon on the Kaibab Trail. Along the way down we passed a lot of hikers coming up from an overnight stay at the bottom. They all looked exhausted…apparently it gets to be up to 115 degrees down at the bottom. Yikes! no thanks. We were perfectly content to hike the 2 miles to Supai Tunnel, enjoy our sandwiches, then pack it out.
From the Grand Canyon we headed to Lee’s Ferry where the silty Paria River joins the Colorado. And you can literally see the water from the 2 rivers coming together, 1/2 a silty red the other 1/2 a dark clear blue. We had driven to Lee’s on a whim. A ranger had said the fishing was good and it was on our way-ish. But it was really a gorgeous place to stay the night. We slept with our back doors open, letting the river rush lull us to sleep. Pretty awesome.
Still in the Grand Canyon? 
Paria joining the Colorado 
Our first beach in way too long!
On the way down to Phoenix we gave Lake Powell another round. Turns out it’s much prettier from the AZ side. And we met a George, who shared his IPA and his stories. It’s always a treat meeting people along the way.
Roaming Geckos 
You’ve been traveling a lot of places where I first went 50+ years ago. On more recent visits, they had changed unbelievably. My boyfriend, his friend, and I visited Zion when you could drive in. There wasn’t any charge for camping in the canyon, and there were only a few other people there. I remember washing my hair under a water pump. Brrrr, it was really cold. When we got to the Grand Canyon, again there was no reservation needed for camping. The best part was being able to pay a dollar to take a hot shower in El Tovar. Of course the views were outstanding. I’m guessing you didn’t get to go to Antelope Canyon. Oh well, another trip. It’s by far my favorite place.
Safe journey!
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